Jane Espenson

Television-creating icon and "Avengers" director, Whedon will step in front of the camera in all three episodes of his longtime collaborator’s show.

Hot off an all-time box office smash and a god-like reception at Comic-Con, Joss Whedon can do whatever he wants right now. And so, never one to rest on his laurels, the writer-director-producer is taking his career in a new direction: acting.

Whedon will appear in his longtime friend and collaborator Jane Espenson’s online sitcom, Husbands, featuring each of the series’ three new, eight minute episodes, as the agent of recently-out and married baseball star Brady (Sean Hemeon). Brady, a Los Angeles Dodgers player, is the first openly gay active Major League Baseball player, and finds himself married to Cheeks (co-creator Brad Bell) after a drunken night in Las Vegas. The show, directed by Jeff Greenstein (Will & Grace, Desperate Housewives), will be, as Whedon himself says, his biggest acting role yet.

"Husbands is full of the kind of whip-smart remarks you wish you’d written yourself," Whedon said earlier this month when the show was renewed. The series will premiere its second season on August 15.

It makes sense that the show is just his style; Espenson was a co-executive producer on Whedon’s cult hit Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and a consulting producer on his Fox sci-fi series, Dollhouse.

The series dovetails nicely with three of Whedon’s main interests: re-teaming with frequent friends and collaborators; advocating marriage equality; and producing award-winning internet series. His Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which will be aired on television this fall by the CW, won an Emmy in 2009 and is one of the most successful pieces of web-originated content of all time.

In fact, one of his Dr. Horrible and Buffy stars, Felicia Day, will also appear this season. Last season, another Dr. Horrible and Buffy alum, Nathan Fillion (who also worked with Whedon as star of the beloved sci-fi western Firefly) appeared as a guest star.

Whedon teased a Dr. Horrible sequel this past week at Comic-Con, and joined Fillion and the rest of the cast of Firefly for a raucous and tear-filled panel discussion in honor of the show’s 10th anniversary.